1
Meanwhile Prince Harry is happy that his brother and sister-in-law are producing heir after heir, putting more warm bodies between him and the throne. He can continue to enjoy his life, work at a meaningful job flying the helicopter in the Army, and partying with beautiful girls with no less pressure and expectation on him.

It's interesting in general terms, of course, but it's particularly interesting to us right now because a lot of the weapons they use are the same ones that are featured in GATE. South Korea is using older gear, a lot of which they got as handoffs from the US Army and US Airforce. So they have Cobra gunships and Phantom jets in this video, for instance.

Yes, it does look like the same Youtube that Ace linked to. I was startled at seeing the F-5 Freedom Fighters, since I though the ROKAF had removed them from service, but it appears that they are soldiering on for a while. Then we see the most advanced version of the F-15 in service (Which is not even taking into account the changes that Boeing had proposed when the ROKAF was taking a look at what became the F-15K.), M270 firing both rockets and ATACMS, armored combat engineering vehicles firing their demolition howitzers (Perhaps even better than a PGM at knocking down masonry structures.), and the MD 500 light helicopters, which the North Koreans also managed to acquire some apparently with to aid with their attempts at infiltrating the ROK.

Then we have the usual SPA, SPAAG, MBTs, gunships and fighter bombers in the mix...

Posted by: cxt217 at September 22, 2015 04:23 PM (tG7TW)

2
The A-10 is American, certainly. Hit a bit to the right of the target, too.

September 17, 2015

A strange configuration

I was just looking at some pictures of HMS Queen Elizabeth, the new carrier that the UK just launched. It isn't ready to go into service yet, in part because they can't get any F-35's for an airwing. For the next couple of years they'll be operating with a USMC F-35 squadron. Which is strange enough.

But what struck me was that the carrier has two islands. I don't remember any other carrier configured like that, and it made me wonder.

I found an answer: the forward island is for navigation; the rear island is air traffic control.

But why separate them, anyway? The rest of the world has done fine with both of those functions in a single tower (on different decks) ever since the 1930's.

1
Quoting from an article here:
"Advantages of the two island configuration are increased flight deck area, reduced air turbulence over the flight deck and increased flexibility of space allocation in the lower decks. The flight control centre in the aft island is in the optimum position for control of the critical aircraft approach and deck landings."

We'll see if reality matches theory, I guess.

Posted by: David at September 17, 2015 11:47 PM (+TPAa)

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It's hard for me to believe that it will make any operational difference, but it's possible that it made construction simpler. If so, that would be a legitimate reason.

I find the twin island arrangement awkward and unpleasant to look at, but it has been part of the CVF design since the initial proposals. The US Navy also examined it for the CVN-78 program (The GERALD FORD-class follow-ons to the NIMITZ-class.) but choose not to go with it - they just placed the entire island further back.

Then again, the reason why the British are procuring two, not three, CVF, is partly due to new and improved designs that aid maintenance in keeping the CVF available for longer periods of time and thus dispense with needing three carriers to keep one carrier on the line....So, one wonders about any other changes that they are giving them. That they went back to the jump ramp instead of the original catapult and arresting wire proposal is also worrisome.

Posted by: cxt217 at September 18, 2015 05:30 AM (tG7TW)

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It also allows a degree of redundancy. Additionally, it would probably make the exhaust and air intake lines much shorter and that would be a survivability feature as well as simplifying construction and freeing up internal space.

September 16, 2015

Republican contest

I can't claim I've been following things very closely, nor that I really care all that much, especially this early. But Trump's amazing ride is spectacular, and I know that the Republican establishment can't figure out the attraction, or perhaps they don't want to admit it to themselves.

If you care for my uninformed opinion, what's going on is that the grass roots are saying this:

Less "go along to get along."
More "In your face, motherfucker."

The defining characteristic of Trump is that he is unafraid to say what he thinks, and doesn't give a damn if it offends someone. He's a fighter. This country gave the Republicans a majority in the House and a majority in the Senate and the Republicans seem to be afraid to use that. Instead they bend knee to the lame duck Democratic President, who is doing his best to shred the constitution and turn himself into a dictator. They give him what he wants, because they're afraid of being vetoed.

Screw that. Send him bills to veto and make it hard on him. Whether Hillary/Bernie/Fauxcahontas like it or not, he's still the face of the Democrats and what he says, the party is largely stuck with. Force him to get on the record on a lot of issues that the voters don't like.

Use the damned "power of the purse". You've got it, he doesn't. (Or rather, he shouldn't have but he's decided he can spend money without permission from Congress, which ought to be an impeachable offense but that won't happen.)

Force a damned government shutdown. I mean it. In his face, motherfuckers. Then send him a budget bill to veto every single day. Hold weekend sessions and do it on Saturday and Sunday, too. Force the Senate Democrats to filibuster those bills, if they want to.

Yeah, he'll blame you and the press will blame you, but the lesson of Trump is that Republican voters don't care what the press says. All the stuff they've tried to fling at Trump isn't sticking, and that's why.

When the press tries to do that to Trump, he says, "I don't give a shit." That's what I want to hear from you, too.

If we wanted Democrats in Congress, we would have voted for them. The reason the Republicans are in majority is because the voters want a change.

So give it to them. Start by replacing Boehner and McConnell, and putting younger, more aggressive, angrier men in those positions.

Yes, the press will try to parboil you -- but they're going to do that no matter what you do, unless you vote like Democrats. And that's not what the voters wanted when they elected you.

Eventually the other candidates are going to wake up to this, too. The problem is that they've all been so damned careful all this time that if they try to change it's going to come off just as fake as Hillary's "candidate face masks of the month" has been.

Trying to fake sincerity has never been very successful, in the long run.

UPDATE: Another thing: Get those committees off their butts and start working. You've been investigating the IRS for something like two and a half years and haven't even gotten to first base. Start subpoening people. Start jailing them for Contempt of Congress and for Perjury. You aren't going to make any progress until you start hurting people.

You have proof that some of them have lied under oath. Get on with it. Make people afraid. That's your job.

There was just a magnitude 8.3 earthquake off the coast of Chile and it may have spawned a tsunami. If so, it will reach Australia some time tomorrow. Fortunately, Sydney seems to be safe, because New Zealand is in the way.

September 12, 2015

Personal icon

If I didn't already have a personal icon that I've been using all over the place for years, I'd use this one in an instant. So I offer it, free, to anyone who wants it. (Unfortunately it's not square, but that can be fixed.)

In case you're wondering, it's from chapter 34 of the GATE manga.

UPDATE:

OK, here's a better version of it, and this time it's square.

UPDATE: If I was really ambitions, now I'd colorize it. But I'm not going to.

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Years ago in another century, I briefly worked at a donut shop that was open all night on weekends. We'd get guys who were slobbering drunk and guys with bright red eyes. Both were pains and wastes of time, but I preferred the potheads. They just wanted to be friendly. The drunks were looking for fights.

I can counter your two examples with literally hundreds of theatre people that I've known over the years who are mellow when weeded. I'm sure some people out there react harshly (seewhatididthere?) to the stuff, but for most of the user base, it's a sedative.